In July 2020, the project manager and president of the Island Movement Maja Jurišić participated in the Leann Hackman-Carty show on the YouTube channel MYD Global. She presented to the general public and the followers of the show/channel the idea she is implementing through the Movement, her perspective on the Croatian islands, their development, and previous experiences.
Bellow, you can find the translation of the interview that took place via video call. Full video at the bottom of the page.
Lean: Despite the fact it is beautiful, life on the island certainly has many obstacles and challenges. I will talk to Maja about the challenges and opportunities she is currently facing on the islands. Before we begin, can you tell viewers a little more about yourself?
Maja: I currently live on the island of Solta in Croatia. I moved here about five years ago after realizing I was tired of the city, crowds, and noise. I kept listening to the same sentence: “I can’t wait to retire so I can go live on some island.” Which is why I asked – why wait for retirement if it’s so good, why not do it right away? By moving to the island in my thirties I gave up the benefits of city life. I decided to go to the island of Šolta because as have a family history with Šolta.
Guided by the desire to live in a happy community, I decided to educate young people on how to stay on the island and create their own jobs. At the time, I was dreaming about becoming a digital nomad. It was very interesting and demanding to adapt to it as my job was not adapted for working remotely. Before coming to the island, I worked for large real estate companies and in the Agency for Investment and Competitiveness in Zagreb at the Ministry of Economy. However, it wasn’t for me. I wanted a change, I wanted to give something to the world, and in those positions, I didn’t feel like I could contribute enough.
Leann: Tell me something about the Island Movement, of which you are president. What are its mission, its goals?
Maja: The story started when I moved to Šolta and realized there are no human resources or capital on the island. Islanders live in a special kind of community. They live a less stressful life due to physical separation from the mainland, where everything happens. However, they still lack information. Regardless of an easy-going and calmer life pace, lack of involvement and information has its drawbacks. So, seven years ago, we founded the association Awakening. We wanted to awaken people and make them aware of events and opportunities outside the island and the potential for further development. We began by implementing an EU project. It aimed at developing various project ideas on islands and preparing them for funding.
In search of knowledge, people from other islands came to Šolta. One of the original ideas was to create a network of people who want to make a change in their local community. We were kind of lonely with that idea because when you’re trying to make a change in a smaller community, it often encounters obstacles and disapproval. Furthermore, Croatia is a country with a very indented coast. Only about fifty out of a thousand islands are inhabited. In the Awakening, we realized we could have a quality network and a change if we have two people on each island willing to work with us.
Fortunately, with new technology and digitalization, we have been allowed to “erase” geographical barriers. From the idea with which the Awakening Association grew, the Island Movement emerged. In 2015, we gathered main local stakeholders from a dozen islands. On the island of Hvar, we began working on the island network strategy. Our main idea was to teach young islanders how to create jobs and stay on the island. We had an enthusiastic idea: to bring islands closer to people and encourage them to move to an island.
When I say we want to act and work on an island, I don’t mean one or some specific islands. All islands make up a unique system. In this regard, it was challenging to find an area where we should act and focus on it because each carries unique problems and challenges, and they are all intertwined.
At one point, we concluded that the biggest problem of the island was corruption. It was only a reflection of what was happening on the mainland and in the central government. So, in layman’s terms, we “stuck a finger” in a complex and painful story. Over time, we became political activists because of the decision to focus on tackling island corruption – we accepted this label. We fought with the then very current issue: uncontrolled devastation of the public maritime good occurring parallel with mass tourism policies. Before the advent of tourism, sustainable living and community were part of island life. Now, negative consequences of massiveness and capitalism are reflected even in the smallest communities.
I felt we were losing islands. The massive house and villa building disrupted the environment and appropriated the natural beauties – the coast. All of the above was the reason for initiating a public debate, public protests against negative trends. The first campaign was “Do you hear our islands?”. We gathered many islanders with whom we sailed a dozen Croatian islands to raise awareness about the islanders’ life. We wanted to raise the issue of islands being forgotten in winter and “shut down” when the tourist season ends.
Leann: Obviously, there are many challenges in your community in the context of sustainable development. What would you list as the main opportunities in the future for the region where you live?
Maja: I must first emphasize that our story, the story of the Island Movement, completely changed two years ago. We concluded we were losing too much energy with the revolutionary spirit. We were making no or little progress while focusing on short-term solutions. We realized we couldn’t bring down the system, but we could slowly change it. For us, this was the right path to long-term solutions. The long-term solution is to offer examples of good practice, rather than highlighting and concentrating on the obstacles and impossibilities we are all aware of.
Based on our experience far, the Island Movement focused on sustainability and building a virtual community, raising awareness, opportunities for the energy transition, and sustainable management of island resources. Of course, we are still here to raise awareness of the possibilities on the island. Two years ago, we started to professionalize, and we hired people working remotely. We have a network of volunteers and associate experts from various fields such as rural development, energy transition, national and European strategic development of the island, etc. In the meantime, the public recognizes us as the largest and most important network of islands and islanders. We act as a “bridge” between the general public and decision-makers in whose relationship we recognize a gap and an opportunity to work. We consider this our greatest challenge.
We also focus on drafting strategic documents in the field of the energy transition. This direction also determined my professional path. I worked in Brussels at the Secretariat for Clean Energy of the EU Islands, which gave me a new perspective and awareness of other islands in Europe and how to build a sustainable future together.
Leann: Would you like to add something at the end? Something you are working on now or a message at the end?
Maja: I would like to say that all solutions are in community and cooperation. We need to build a life from within the community, from the bottom, without forgetting the decisions “from the top” islanders should be involved in and should follow. We need to find a way to connect the two sides and overcome all the disagreements we encounter. A crisis caused by a pandemic awaits us, which will intensively affect everyone, but especially the islands, islanders, and their tourism-based economy. We need to stick together in the pure sense of the word. Playing power games and competing with each other will get us nowhere. We need to take a step back and act as a community again.